As
familiar as the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde may be, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne is far from
traditional in its narrative. Written and directed by Walerian Borowcyzk, who
was known for his sensational and sexually explicit filmmaking, this version
seems to have been inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s first attempt at the
narrative. Stevenson was engaged to a woman named Fanny Osbourne, who was said
to have been so horrified by this early draft that the writer destroyed it
before starting over to create the narrative we now know. Borowcyzk uses his
imagination in creating a perverse adaptation that is easy to imagine would
have been shocking enough for destruction.

Island of Death is a film best known for
being banned, though the shock value has diminished greatly with time and the
obvious lack of production values. The concept alone remains horrifyingly
grotesque, but ideas are not enough to shock today’s desensitized audiences;
they need to be shown the horrors. Lack of budget and Greek filmmaker Nico
Mastorakis’ clear intentions in making an exploitation B-film keep Island of Death
on the fringes of film history. Mastorakis even admits in the detailed
interviews of the special features that the 1976 film was merely made for
money, intended to cash in on the schlocky success of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

Massacre Gun plays like a yakuza noir, a
black-and-white gangster film that is steeped in atmosphere and action.
Although it has the distinct feel of a late 1960s Japanese crime film, not
unlike the films of Seijun Suzuki, the straightforward narrative is remarkably
timeless. Watching this film that is nearing 50-years old, it is not difficult
to imagine a modern adaptation by Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino. At the
same time, Yasuharu Hasebe’s 1967 film is difficult to imagine without Jô
Shishido in the leading role.